Japan defence minister says wants to quit - media

TOKYO, Aug 24 (Reuters) Japan's defence minister said she wanted to step down from her post when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffles his cabinet next week, media reported today.

Yuriko Koike, speaking on a visit to India, was quoted as saying she wanted to take responsibility for a scandal in which Japanese naval officers were found to have leaked classified information.

''I want to take responsibility,'' she was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency. ''I want to hand the baton to a new minister.'' Abe has vowed a complete revamp of his cabinet in a reshuffle on Monday after his first line-up was hit by a series of political funding scandals and gaffes that led to the ruling coalition's big defeat in an upper house election last month.

Koike became Japan's first female defence minister just last month after her predecessor quit over a gaffe. But her future had hung in the balance after Abe was forced to step in to settle her public row with the top defence ministry bureaucrat this month.

REUTERS PD RN1731